


Dissention

by Corehealer



Category: Ascian - Fandom, Final Fantasy XIV, Shadowbringers - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anal Sex, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Ascians (Final Fantasy XIV), Blood, Corruption, Evil, F/M, Internal Conflict, Loss of Conviction, Memory Loss, Memory Magic, Oral Sex, Other, Pain, Personality Swap, Sex, Soul Bond, The Convocation of Fourteen (Final Fantasy XIV), True Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-12 09:35:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 17,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28883262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corehealer/pseuds/Corehealer
Summary: 5.0/5.3 spoilers, shifting perspectives, primarily narrative third person. The author's own Warrior of Light, Sarah Corehealer, and Emet-Selch. Characters you love will die in this, most likely starting with the Scions, so go in fully warned on that front.It is perhaps a little inevitable when shipping with an Ascian to desire to do a corruption fic, whereby the dear hero loses their resolve and becomes the thing they fight against out of love for one who already has fallen into evil actions. In that sense, this fic should come as little surprise to those who follow my work and particularly those who read and enjoyed Ascian, Azem. What will hopefully come as a surprise is how I try to flip that idea on it's head a bit, and the slow pace I wish to take with it. I look forward to seeing what comes out.Sarah has just witnessed Emet-Selch pluck Y'shtola from the Lifestream, to the joy and appreciation of her Scion companions. Watching them depart back to Fanow, but realizing he remains, she seeks to use this moment of solitude with just him to try and talk, and suss some things out of him. In their exchange, she begins to suspect things are far more then they may seem.
Relationships: Azem/Emet-Selch (Final Fantasy XIV), Solus zos Galvus | Emet-Selch/Warrior of Light
Comments: 4
Kudos: 24





	1. The Most Reliable Way

_Do you know the most reliable way to deal with those who stubbornly refuse to see reason?_

You conquer them. Crush them under heel.

_But conquest, dear hero, is the easy part. The true challenge? Quenching the glowing embers of animosity and maintaining a semblance of peace._

And this requires the conqueror to treat the conquered with dignity, and the conquered to let bygones be bygones. A difficult feat to achieve. As you told me.

_So why not go just a little further, then? Peace is such a fragile thing, after all, easy to break. Easier in some ways even just to bend, and toy with, to push to the edge but never over the cusp of conflict. To root out what lies beneath the façade._

And yet, you have achieved just that. Treated me with dignity. Helped me to let go of that façade. Pushed me to the edge. All to my considerable surprise…

_Then let us go that little bit further and strike together, while the proverbial iron is hot. Shatter this fleeting peace that has been cast over you and the world around you._

_Crush it under heel._

_And see the world for what it truly is, and what it ever should have been._

***

Evening, in the Rak’tika Greatwood. Not that it was as yet readily apparent, given the continued presence of the Light in this place. Animal life continued on as ever it had, and it was in this alone that she was able to determine the shift of the day into night, as some creatures ceased their activity, and others began theirs, with all the accompanying shifts in sound. A benefit of their instincts outlasting the Flood, to know when to sleep and when to hunt and cry out, even when the sky knew no better.

She imagined, as she listened to the others exclaim with gratitude and glee at Y’shtola’s return from the Lifestream, that this must be in some ways how he felt too, under this golden sky. He knew when to sleep, which around here was often as she had observed in as many days. Watching him perched in trees seemingly snoozing. She wondered, then, when his time to hunt would come again.

He must have known by now he was not the only predator around here who liked to watch. Who else then but her was worthy of his attentions? Of whatever power slumbered in darkness behind his yellow eyes?

“ _Ahem. Is there aught you wish to say to me? A word of **thanks** , perhaps_?”

She motioned to speak, before catching herself, realizing his words had been intended for the others; Thancred, Minfilia, Urianger, Runar and Y’shtola.

“Emet-Selch, the Ascian of whom I spoke. ‘Twas he who plucked thee from the Lifestream.” Urianger offered brief clarification as to his presence, hunched over and dressed overly formally for the environment. Though somehow not entirely out of place in their midst. She could not place why.

Y’shtola responded in kind, her life having been saved by his actions.

“I see. Thank you. Differences notwithstanding, you saved my life, and for that I am grateful.”

He shrugged in acquiescence, saying nothing.

“But let us turn our attention to more important matters, such as the Qitana Ravel…” Y’shtola’s mind already shifted gears quickly, never far from the pursuit of knowledge even after so close a brush with death. She and the others spoke for some moments, though my mind lay elsewhere, truth be told. He stood and listened, much as I now did. What could be running through that mind of his, I wonder?

“I trust you have not gone and explored the place without me, Sarah?” Y’shtola’s smiling face brought her back to the present.

“Heavens no. In fact, I was awaiting your return.” A half-truth, having grown accustomed to loved ones dying, without someone capable of saving them. That was the way of things for a hero. To lose, over and over.

Her smile widened at this. Sarah returned it in earnest, trying to focus instead on her friend’s familiar warmth and the softness of her grey irises. He had mentioned the colour of her soul but a moment ago; I wonder what it looks like. I imagine, if it is anything like her flesh, it must be something worth drinking in at length.

Thancred spoke next.

“Well, Almet and the others should be pleased to see you in such _uncharacteristically_ high spirits. Let us return to Fanow, then, and discuss the coming expedition.”

An exchange of nods from all assembled save for Emet-Selch, who remained slightly apart, face unreadable beyond his seemingly ever present glower. Each in turn came to walk off towards the Ronkan Viis settlement not far afield, chatting happily as they went, Runar making sure to cling close to Y’shtola’s side for fear of losing her again.

I’m in no rush to rejoin them. He hasn’t departed yet. Now, finally, we might have a chance to talk.

After ensuring the others had been given ample time to depart from earshot, Sarah turned to face the Ascian, who for his part did not immediately acknowledge her continued presence.

“Emet-Selch.”

“ _Yes, hero_?”

“I have some questions for you, if I may. Just between us.”

“ _More inane questions. Lovely. I should surely like to hope for my sake that these ones prove the more interesting of your many questions for me of late, spoken as they are now in relative privacy_.”

Another shrug, as he turned to face her. She couldn’t pin a damn thing down about this man, even so close to him now, and after having spoken with him numerous times in the company of her companions these many days. I’ve always had a talent for reading people like books, sussing out their needs and problems, and yet he was proving to be infuriatingly distant.

Nothing he had said thus far had proven to be untrue, but he was nevertheless equally grating on her nerves for some reason. Not for his attitude, or for his Ascian nature. Moreso for this apparent familiarity that seemed to exist between him and her, though for the life of me I cannot place why that might be.

It was this thought that prompted her first question.

“Why is it that you feel so familiar to me?”

“ _Because you read Garlean history books, obviously. Next question_?”

She furrowed her brows in annoyance.

“No, I am quite aware that it is not because you bear your former life’s visage at present. I mean more generally, in the here and now. And with me specifically, individually. Why do you feel so familiar to me?”

He paused a moment to seemingly look her up and down, before sighing and shaking his head.

“ _This seems a question better suited for after you’ve completed your little dance with the Lightwardens, is it not? The reason you find me familiar will in that sense become clearer with time, with experience_.”

He was evading the question.

“Hmm. I see. Let’s try something else then. Why is it that you really chose to help us?”

“ _It is as I said in the Exedra; I seek cooperation and a chance for us all to learn more about one another. To find common ground and cease this needless fighting between us. Is that not a sufficient answer for you, hero_?”

“No, not particularly.” Her hat was feeling uncomfortably overbearing atop her head in this moment. She chose to remove it and hold it in her hand off to one side as she continued.

“It was at first but… the more time I spend around you and the way you tease around the truth… the more I cannot but seek to know what else is going on.”

She rose her free hand to stop him before he had a chance to retort.

“And before you wonder, no, I don’t doubt that you have ulterior motives of a more… unpleasant kind, for all of this seeming cooperation. Ascians always do. I don’t blame you for that either, I would do the same in your position.”

This elicited a small eyebrow raise from him as he continued to listen.

“What I really want to understand is, why me specifically? I don’t believe you have nearly as much interest in the others as you do in me. Is it because of the kin of yours I have slain? The plans I’ve foiled? Have I prompted a need for you to reassess my capabilities relative to your own before attempting to kill me? Or is there something else going on here?”

He smirked at her, chuckling a little to himself.

“ _Well, by all means, you seem to already be on the track of answering your own question there. So do go on and enlighten me; what do you think is really going on here_?”

“I think you’ve got an eye to recruit me.”

“ _Don’t flatter yourself hero. Ascians do not recruit ‘adventurers’ into our number, not even eikon slayers and fabled heroes such as you. As well, last I checked, you belong to Hydaelyn. That fact alone precludes any such thoughts of drawing you to us.”_

She looked down at her free hand, bound in clawed gloves and hemmed by her High Allagan attire, suited for a caster of her stature and for her fashion tastes. She didn’t seem to herself all that far off from them, at least in the love of clawed gloves and her preference for black magicks.

She had a whole range of thoughts and theories on this matter, truth be told, ideas hard won from years of travel, of struggle, of research to border Urianger’s own on the matter of the Ascians. When Emet-Selch had come to them, it was the spark that lit the match of turning her mind towards reviewing such facts anew, and to question their relevance to his presence. His change of tact. What their play was this time.

 _“We only draw forth from those who have ever been among our number_.”

I’m sure you do.

This seemed like a more promising line of inquiry, and especially because of how this last point seemed to ring out for her as relevant to her burgeoning theories on the man and his ‘interests’. She pressed forward.

“There are many Ascians known by name, or ‘title’ as you told me recently. Known to we mere mortals for their many dreaded deeds over the years. Thirteen, in fact, are named in recorded history. This seems to my mind to be in accordance with the number of shards of the Source that we Scions now know to exist, or which at least did exist in the past…”

She paused a moment.

“Which would mean there are actually Fourteen in all, if one counts the Source…”

She brushed her free hand through her hair to straighten it and steel her nerves.

“If there is an Ascian for every reflection, then should there not be a Fourteenth? Why do they go unmentioned or unseen if they should exist? Except that they do not for some reason. Or that they are absent.”

He said nothing in this moment, returning his face to that unreadable glower that always seemed his default.

“I feel like, on some level, such a theory might seem… childish. Dot connecting supposition. There’s no particular reason, from my limited point of view, to think the sundered world should reflect the Ascians or vice versa. They are just numbers after all, and possibly coincidence. But… colour me curious all the same.”

“ _Curiosity is an admirable trait, but also a dangerous one_.”

“Given my profession and the things I’ve done and been forced to do, I should think curiosity and danger are as but extensions of my soul.”

“ _Indeed…_ ”

He paced back and forth for a moment.

“ _A question then for you, if I may_?”

“Of course.”

“ _If I were to admit that there are Fourteen of our number in truth, would it then be safe to assume you think of yourself as potentially that individual, assuming them to be in absence, for some reason_?”

“I would not presume anything with you and yours. I am merely surprised given my interactions with many other Ascians that you choose to pursue me in the way that you do. Lahabrea, Igeyorhm, Elidibus, Nabriales, Emmerololth… none of them had words for me, only Echoes and pain. Violence. Or in Elidibus’ case, cold indifference and cryptic statements. That does not suggest recognition, even if I were to be... such a person.”

She approached a step closer to him.

“You are very cryptic in your own ways, as well, but you don’t seem willing to lie to me, deceive me.”

“ _Elidibus is a worrier, and so tends to stumble into the odd lie from time to time in covering for failures. I would not fault him overmuch for it. The others deceive as a matter of course, given their roles. My role is to carry the truth_.”

“Then you are exactly who I should be speaking to then, if the interest of you and yours has shifted from deception to the truth. And if your interest in me is different than before.”

“ _And I have spoken of as much; a desire to find common ground requires the truth, requires dialogue and the building of trust_.”

“Then perhaps you should try trusting me a bit more and setting aside mere observation.”

“ _You have not earned it yet, and you read too much into my interest._ ”

“Something tells me you don’t want me to earn anything, not in the manner you’ve placed before me.”

“ _And what makes you say that_?”

“I overheard the others speak of it, in Slitherbough; the Light that now infects my soul, from the Lightwardens. Y’shtola and Minfilia can see it, and the way my soul is already changing into something unrecognizable. Monstrous, like the sin eaters I imagine.”

She gazed down at the ground for a moment, remembering her disappointment with Urianger when she had discovered his willingness to keep this information from her.

“Though you may find it hard to believe, I do not like being used, even by my friends. Especially where it concerns my life.”

“ _For all your sacrifices for them, I should think not_.”

“It wouldn’t even be the first time they’ve kept things from me, but in this case, it feels more… bitter, in aftertaste, than before. Because of the fate which presumably awaits me once I’ve absorbed enough of these damnable creatures and restored the night sky.”

She tossed her hat onto the ground, rustling a bit into the leaves and grass. She stared at it’s pointed top and feathered cropping.

“I imagine, then, from that basis, that you have a similar design for me, though one which is not intended for sacrifice to save the First and the Source, but to Rejoin them. Your goal of millennia, writ large upon the land back home. Upon it’s history. You and yours seem to shape everything, and so then I can only imagine it has always been so, and that from this basis, the idea of there being an Ascian for every world seems less presumptuous.”

After another pause, he clapped briefly, almost mockingly, and grinned at her.

“ _Well well, it would seem there’s more going on in that sundered little head of yours than I gave you credit for. You worked out a fair bit of detail just from observing the world around you, and engaging honestly with your circumstances. I have to wonder why it is that you have never done this before now_.”

“I’ve done so, many times. Worked out the details of situations that pertain to myself and my loved ones, to protect them and myself. But this time feels different...”

She sighed, and massaged her temples for a moment, lost in thought.

“Like… I can maybe do something about it rather than simply acquiesce to the same demands. To the same fate that now seems to spell my end.”

“ _And if this is indeed my plan for you, then why would I seek to keep you from it_?”

“Because I don’t believe it’s really your plan. That you’re really following the script you want for me either.”

“ _And why do you think that? You seem to have such strange ideas about me, hero_.”

“Though I cannot confirm any of my thoughts on you at present, I do not think that any of them are all that strange save for the familiarity I mentioned previously. In some ways you make more sense than most of the people I’ve ever met.”

Another eyebrow raise. He stared at her, slightly baffled.

“It’s a compliment. Take it.”

“ _Hmph, I need no such things from you_.”

“But you do enjoy it, do you not?” She sneered at him, sensing something was indeed changing. And something was, but not in the way she imagined.

“ _What I enjoy is not having to stand here in this cursed Light and being instead given the rest I so richly deserve after my long years of labour over a hot anvil, breaking down a people into such a form that they would be useful to the Rejoinings. This goal achieved in Garlemald, I was finally able to sleep…_ ”

He pointed at her in anger.

“ _Before you had to go and ruin it all_!”

“Like I did the last time, Ha-?” As these words left her lips, she pressed her hand to her mouth. She had no idea where those words had come from. And could not entirely recall the last one.

His mouth went open a little at this, his brief flaring of anger now dissipating in an instant. He stared at her, in some uncharacteristic level of shock. Almost as if she’d punched him square in the jaw.

“ _What… did you just say_?”

“I… I don’t know… it was the strangest thing like… something came over me.”

They stood in silence for a moment, with bird songs and rustling trees in the wind the only sound. The ringing of the Light in the sky an omnipresent backdrop.

She bowed her head low as he continued to regard her with surprise. She had already forgotten it again, and was proceeding along her prior train of thought.

“I think there is a great deal I’ve guessed at thus far… but that there is also a great deal that I do not yet know. That I do not yet understand. I am grasping at shadows, hoping to find the reason for all of this, but I keep coming up with yet more questions for which I lack answers and the means to find them. And I have never been one to abide an unanswered question.”

She rose her head back up to his, her face returning to something more composed. Determined. Though she did not entirely believe her next words, she held enough doubt in a great many things now that had previously felt assured that she was able to passably bluff this sentiment with him.

“If I said to you that I did not want to kill the Lightwardens anymore, that I did not want to die or become a sin eater… that I was tired of this farce, and of being lied to… would you believe me and tell me the truth?”

He stood in long silence, eyes locked upon her, barely moving an ilm. His previous exhaustion and any hint of what was going through his mind once again departed, and he simply continued to regard her with shock and, after a few moments, furrowed eyes, betraying a hint of confusion.

And then, sudden realization.

“ _No… it can’t be…_ ”

“Can’t be what?”

He raised his hand to her this time, as if beckoning her to remain silent. She did so.

He paced around her for several minutes, eyes moving up and down over her body. Were it anyone else, she would be quite incensed at this apparently lewd behaviour, something she was not unused to seeing in the places where her name brought about cheers, turned heads and endless thanks. Many people who praised her for her heroism also imagined what a conquest it would be to take her to bed.

There was a time when such things were easier to embrace. But she was not that person anymore, and so felt only the hint of that life in this moment as he now came around again to face her front and center.

“ _Speak true now to me, hero. You ask after familiarity and suppose yourself to be my equal. To be of our number. What exactly do you think you know? What do you remember_?”

She had no easy answers to this, but brought forth what she could.

“I think that I’ve stumbled onto something that makes a tad more sense than simply following the script you and the Exarch, in your own ways, have laid out for me. But it also makes less sense, for all the details I yet lack.”

A sigh.

“However I came to be here, in this life, in this place, in this moment, as this woman? I cannot entirely say, nor presume to think much beyond that as to… any other life. I remember only what I see in the here and now, and where I’ve come from. And I want to understand what in the hells is going on. I want the truth.”

Disappointment, then. Hope is a fickle thing. She is useless to me, remembers nothing, guesses after things beyond her. Just like any other shard...

He mouthed off something under his breath, then continued.

“ _I can only say then that my interest is rapidly changing now, for this interaction. I thank you for the insight, but I believe our time is up_.”

He snapped his fingers, and motioned suddenly to leave, summoning one of his void portals anon. She quickly reached out her hand to grab his arm, stopping him.

“Wait… wait! I… is there something I’m forgetting? If you know something, I would beg of you, please, tell me what it is.”

His continence changed instantly, as if a mask fell away and was replaced with something underneath that she could now see and feel. Sorrow, and something else. Tinges of anger and disappointment. Gritted teeth. He almost seemed to rasp out at her, contempt dripping from every word spoken.

“ _You made a choice, to stand apart. What’s done is done. Now you have only this fate, and your new master. If you were ever anyone else, it is far too late for regrets for any of the choices she made_.”

A soft, low voice, reeking of sadness.

“ _Now… please, let go of my arm, hero_.”

“But what if I asked for you to let me seek your forgiveness?”

He skipped a beat, with another pause, but held firm in this moment.

“ _There can be no forgiveness for what you did to us. To me_.”

Panic was rapidly overwhelming her ability to process this interaction, or from whence her current urgency was arising. She lashed out a little, even while shaking his arm, tugging at him to stay.

“If that were true, than you should have just killed me, or merely watched me from afar! But you knew something was different! You know something now that I want to know! Please, let me have this chance!”

He wrested his arm free of her grasp, and then walked through the portal without another word or glance in her direction. After the portal had dissipated, she collapsed into the place where he had been standing, and wept.

She no longer felt like herself.

For this moment at least, she was no longer Sarah. She was a memory.

***

A half bell passed, and eventually Minfilia and Urianger came looking for her, finding her sitting in the spot where she had been left, quiet and unmoving, tears wiped away to prevent undesired questions. Her mind was now a flurry of confusion, self-doubt and worry; worry in particular as to what had apparently come over her, and what it could possibly mean. Where these words and emotions had sprang from eluded her.

Her friends coaxed her from her thoughts after a few minutes, comforting her. Beckoning her to return with them to the Viis and the others, to talk and discuss their plans for the Ravel, and to perhaps take on some rest and a hot meal. She agreed, ushering up a weak smile for them, and they left the glade together. She managed to steal one last glance behind her at the spot where he had been as they went, her mind now nothing but questions, and a constant review of his words.

All the while, Emet-Selch sat in nearby trees, watching her as he had been doing for days now, but this time with a dour expression. Less in judgement, more in profound sadness, among other, similar feelings.

It was her. He had suspected in dim awareness as to the colour and fragrance of her soul, that something was off about her. But now, in this interaction, he knew. Was more certain of his suspicions.

She was the same, even sundered, and was now wasting her time in such a manner among these vain reflections. Oblivious to her circumstances but even now railing against them. Regretting her choice of long ago, though she couldn’t even realize her folly as she was in the present. Couldn’t remember any of the things she’d been or done. And grasping after it now, she was apparently filled with a desire for redemption.

Contrition.

And she mirrored in her own imperfect manner the profound sadness and separation he had felt for millenia, and now felt once again as he watched her silently nod and barely say a word to her companions. A slave to Her whims. It was in many ways too much for him to bear, to watch her in this state.

This sadness, and her seeming expression of regret, was what interested him the most about their impromptu heart to heart. Her ability to figure out so much on her own, which had impressed him. And the question of redemption, such as it could be said to exist for one who dissents and then forgets themselves. Who fails their people in the hour of their greatest need. He had never forgiven her for that, nor had her other peers, despite the ages passing and her long absence.

They had retained a place for her among them, but it had long been assumed it would ever remain empty, at least until the world was whole again, and a new Azem could be chosen. He had ever lamented the loss, even for his anger, and had still sought out any sign of her fate after all had come and gone in the Sundering. He sought out all the souls of those who had been his peers, and had reascended them all to their seats over the years, taught them about who they were and what they had lost.

He held their truth, and imparted it as best as he could alongside their crystals. Made them as whole as could be done.

He’d never seen even a speck of her soul before now, no sign of her or her passing, despite all his efforts and searching. Pursuing in his heart this hope that, perhaps, he would be able to salvage her at long last. Despite everything, and how he still felt, he had made her crystal again, and regarded it many times in his hands over the years. Heedless of the Convocation in this one thing, that he could not let go of.

Dreaming of a day when she would be his again.

And now here she was.

What to do about it? The principal piece in this game was now your wife.

They would be angry, of course, were he to go around their backs and help her. But knowing now of her presence after all this time, and increasingly remembering his life with her, and all the ways she had completed him, had fulfilled his desires and made his heart soar… He owed her more than to allow her to suffer as a pawn of the Light.

His earlier anger was ebbing away in fond recollection, and the distant taste of her lips on his. His fear at the consequences disappearing into memories of her hands in his, and her smile.

The day passed into night, and they rested. Conversed with the Viis, helped them with various tasks, shared in their meals, and retired to bed. She did not sleep much that night, tossing and turning in troubled slumber, tormented by strange dreams. Not far from her room among the canopy, he rested too, still lost in thought and memory. Dreaming of her.

In the morning, they set out for the Ravel, and after great struggle, managed to fell the beasts and guardians of Ronka within and destroy the third Lightwarden. Sarah, though momentarily hesitant to take on this Light relative to the first two times, relented to necessity, and allowed for it to enter her. Her pain and worry increased, but she allowed her friends to reassure her that a solution would be found, and that they could still save this world and the Source.

The night returned now in full, and the peoples of the Greatwood celebrated, cheered her name. The Warrior of Darkness had come and set them free from the Light’s poisonous pall at long last. They now gazed up into the beautiful starry sky above and heaped gratitude upon her, knowing her identity instantly despite her never admitting her role. Recognizing in her passing among them something fundamental about her nature that she herself was already beginning to forget again.

But he remembered. And after a while, having stewed in his own regrets, he decided it might be time to approach her again, and see what more could be coaxed from her. Having already interacted again with her and her companions in the Ravel and revealed to them the Ascians history and the nature of Zodiark and Hydaelyn, he imagined the hero of the hour was now more or less prepared for a renewed conversation on the topics she had broached with him.

Something was different about this age. He hadn’t seen her in such a long time. Perhaps they had both suffered apart long enough. Perhaps she had atoned enough to find the means to atone in full for her great error.

Perhaps she truly had, finally, changed her mind.

***

She sat under a tree not far from the Ravel’s entrance, alone, having parted from her companions moments ago having shared with them a desire for peace and quiet. The Lightwarden now slain, they had relented to her request out of gratitude for her actions, but also because she had been insistent that none attend to her. She wanted true solitude, to think and consider his words in the Ravel. She’d heard enough talking and planning for the nonce.

This quiet she had for some time, almost at one point falling asleep listening to the crickets chirping and the rest of night’s music in her ears, now free of the Light in the sky, but before she could fully drift off she suddenly heard the telltale footfalls of his soft leather boots, crunching in the undergrowth before her.

She opened her eyes, and there he was, smiling down at her. Quite unlike how he had been.

“ _Hello again, hero_.”

“Hello again, Emet-Selch.”

He walked beside her, and sat down, just within arm’s reach but apart enough as to not disturb her overmuch. They sat there together in silence for a moment before she spoke.

“I had the distinct impression you were upset with me for some reason. So… I am quite perplexed that you should now present yourself to me, with a smile.”

“ _Let us just say that… I have had a chance to think, upon your words. Reflect on them at length. And it has prompted me to come and ask you some questions for a change. Engage with you on your level_.”

“How… uncharacteristic of you. Something I said really must have struck true.”

He did not respond to this, or even look in her direction, staring up at the night sky even as she stared at him, now rapidly awakening from her fatigue to try and read his intent anew. Determine what had changed.

“ _Tell me, hero. You know so much of history and the world, to the extent any of your kind can claim to know anything. Do you know of any heroes that were happy_?”

“Excuse me?”

“ _That had a happy ending_?”

She paused to consider if she had, a hand to her chin. Nothing really came to mind, most having ended their lives and stories in bloodied sacrifice, as she often assumed she would in turn one day. Not that she particularly wanted to.

“ _I imagine that you cannot_.”

“They never let one be famous and happy. Something I imagine Solus could relate to.”

A chuckle from the Ascian, as he turned to look at her, still smiling.

“ _I’ll let you in on a little secret_.”

“Oh, do tell. I love secrets.”

“ _I shall be the first_.”

She blinked at him.

“I had no idea you saw yourself in such terms. I thought you enjoyed playing the preening villain, scheming and loving the sound of your own voice.”

“ _And I do, for the most part. But… I do not entirely see myself in such terms. Certainly not in the past, at any rate. I have not always been the person you see before you, just as you have not always been the person I see before me_.”

She removed her hat, once again feeling it uncomfortable atop her head in this moment, setting it down next to her in the shade of the tree.

“I suppose I can believe that, and agree. But then, I have to ask… who were you?”

Another moment of silence as he turned from her.

“ _I have lived a long time, as you can probably gather. Though I imagine it would be difficult for you to grasp at just how long. I’ve worn many faces and been many things to many people, over the years. And some of those things cling closer to the truth, to what I value more highly than even my soul, than words can do justice_.”

He picked a leaf up off the ground, flipping it over in his hands for a few moments.

“ _I suspect you can also guess I have a true name, lying under all of that_.”

“And I have no desire to violate your privacy and ask for it, if you are not willing to share.”

“ _Indeed. I would prefer to ask for yours_.”

“Sarah Corehealer.”

“ _Incorrect_.”

She scoffed at him.

“I think I should at least know my own name.”

“ _You should. But you do not. Like so much else that was taken from you. By Her. Your master_.”

“You spoke of Her and Him, in the Ravel…” She glanced at it’s gate not far from them, glowing orange.

“ _It matters not in that sense who holds the reins of our actions. We are both complicit, you and I, in our own fates. In the places we’ve been, the people we are now. And what has set us upon the path that led us here, to this chance meeting_.”

He placed the leaf down, snapped his fingers, and from the resulting spark of aether above his right hand, produced a rose. An Azeyma rose, strangely enough, but flush with whiter petals tinged pink and red at their tips. He offered it to her.

“A romantic too, are we? When I said I surmised by this renewed discussion and your smile that I had struck true with my words, I did not expect this.”

“ _It is less about that notion and more about what the rose itself represents. Hold it in your hand, and tell me what you remember_.”

She took it in her hands, cupping it in both atop her lap, gazing down at it and studying it’s every detail. Aside from different colouration, it seemed to be as any other Azeyma rose she had ever seen in the markets of Ul’dah or the fields of the Burning Wall.

“It’s less red then it aught to be…”

“ _It is exactly as it should be. Now focus_.”

She closed her eyes for a moment, deciding to remove her clawed gloves and regard the rose with her fingers unguarded. Feel their texture on her skin.

After a few moments of doing so, and listening to the music of the night continue on in her ears, she felt something stir around in her heart. Something distantly nostalgic about the flower in her hands.

He began to whisper in her ears, still some distance from her but carrying his voice across the wind to her.

“ _Can you even remember why you came here_?”

“I always came home to you. What a silly thing to ask.”

She really wasn’t all that far from the surface. His suspicions had been borne out again.

“ _Can you even remember how many people you have killed_?”

“I do what I must for the people I love.”

Then why not for me, when it really mattered? And why not for them?

“ _How many lives you shattered, and the stories you ended_?”

“I do what I must for my convictions. My hopes and dreams.”

Meaningless air when the world was aflame with our fears and regrets.

“ _Your sins are beyond counting. Beyond fathoming. Without end_.”

“And so are yours. I have not forgotten that much.”

“ _Justice? Nobility? Conviction? Excuses_.”

“Sometimes an excuse is all that is needed to shatter the illusion.”

Our world was anything but. And yet you left me all alone.

“ _We are most definitely not without fault. But it is this cruel, indifferent world in which we live now that has made murderers and villains of us all_.”

“Stained my creation, cradled here in my hands, with blood. The blood of my people, and of myself. As I once was…”

“ _You and I, we need not suffer so any longer. I seek to make these broken souls whole. I seek to make you whole again_.”

“If only that were true… If only I could believe it…”

It can be true, if you are willing.

“ _To recreate a world beyond pain and suffering and anguish and despair. A world beyond death, and its attendant loss. A world in which we shall never need to bid farewell to our dearest friends…_ ”

“I should very much like to see it again. To see all of them again, with arms outstretched to receive me.”

“ _Do you not perchance find comfort in reunion? To see the face of one you have forgotten, who yet remains known to your tattered soul? The darkness within which you know yourself best_?”

“My heart knows joy it has never known before, to see your smiling face again. And yet… I cannot but feel great sorrow as well, to see the way you regard me now, and how far you yourself have fallen from grace…”

We do what we must for our duty. You did the same, once, and in a sense never ceased to.

“ _I am not your enemy. Not then, or now, in truth. I do not wish to fight you. I would only ask… if you will not join with me, at least leave me and my brothers and sisters to do our duty_.”

“I… cannot sit apart. If I cannot stand with you, I must stand against you. You know this.”

“ _It is never too late to turn back. You are a good person. And you still can be_.”

“I have long since ceased to be so. To be worthy of any such consideration. I have long since ceased to be the one you loved.”

“ _That I very much do not believe… Persephone_.”

She opened her eyes with a start, breathing heavily and almost crushing the flower in her hand as she returned to the present moment, gasping for air. For a moment, she felt the pull of robed throngs and his hand in hers as they made their way to their home, in the night’s cool embrace.

“Where… who…”

“ _Focus now on the rose, and it’s colour anew. What do you see_?”

Her hands trembled slightly as she gazed slowly down from darting about the forest before her to regard the rose in her hand, still mostly intact. It was beginning to turn red slowly, the petals turning from white to scarlet. The colour of blood.

“ _Woe follows the man who stands opposed to you, Traveler. For death is his reward. Death for him and all he holds dear_.”

From the rose the colour seeped out on to her hands, and stained her fingers and palms with deepest red, almost dripping off of her. She could not take her eyes off the way it all seemed so real.

“ _Woe in turn follows the man who follows in your wake, Traveler. For loss is his reward. The loss of his dearest friend…_ ”

In the red, she could make out the outline of a mask, coming into view. Before she could blink, it was in her hands. An oval shape, with white lines and a glowering expression… just like his…

“ _Like sand through an hourglass, everything you fight so desperately to protect, to hold and to cherish, slips through your fingers. And what remains? Insufficient even to assuage the guilt. The memories of your sin_.”

He took the mask from her hand and placed it gently on his face, turning to her as she turned to see him now for the first time as he truly was.

“ _To walk my path is to suffer. To sacrifice. This you knew once as well, in truth. In full. And you might know it again, and not simply this simulacrum of such things. This false heroism you hold to be the true path to salvation_.”

“I…” She had no words, nothing she could speak, only looking at his mask and the smile that had never once left his lips.

“ _I offer you peace, hero. Restitution for your past, your true past. A chance to make amends. Do not think you are above such things, or that a reckoning, a true reckoning, will be postponed indefinitely_.”

“Who… who are you?”

He shook his head. She needed another little push. He knew just the thing.

He leaned in closer, close enough that she could feel the heat of his breath as it left his lips and nostrils, under the mask.

“ _In your darkest hour… in the blackest of nights… think of me… and I will be with you. Always. For where else could I go_?”

A gloved hand on her heart.

“ _Who else could I love but you_?”

She choked a bit in her throat, swallowing perhaps a bit too much air, and fell forward a little into his body, forehead on the golden medal atop the breast of his imperial regalia. Disregarding just how close she had become to lie there, and soak into his warmth. Her mind a chaos of thoughts and broken shards of glass.

He wrapped his free left arm around her now, to console her, as she slowly began to weep.

“ _I will not pretend to know everything you’ve been through, since we departed from one another that day. But I have to believe in the end that you returned, here and now, to me for a reason. And I would make good on that reason_.”

He lifted her tearstained cheeks and eyes to his.

“ _Whatever that reason may be_.”

“Who are you…?” Her voice was shaky, lacking all assurance and safety, simply collapsing into the black void that was left of his own soul after so long, seeking to fill it without entirely realizing where she was or who she was any longer.

“ _Your dearest friend_.”

“Then why can I not remember you?”

“ _I think, judging by your reaction, that you do. On some level, however distant, you remember_.”

He retracted his hand from her heart reluctantly to root around in his coat for something.

An orange crystal, like a job stone, a white circle surrounding another white circle.

“ _Take this in hand, and remember us_.”

He placed it in her right hand, next to the rose.

“ _Remember that we once lived_.”

He closed her fingers around both, and then put his hand on her cheek, tenderly.

“ _Remember what we once were_.”

Her eyes fell shut, and as she opened them again she found herself in a different place and time. A hand in his, in the midst of a blizzard of snow. A rare occurrence in the city, but not unheard of. All the citizens clinging close to their robes and masks to shield from the cold and hurry home to their loved ones, or in their company, as she now did with him.

The gates of some vast institution of learning fading from vision. All the towering spires, glittering but encased in ice and snow, glowing blue. He took her by the hand up winding stairs, from that icy chill into the heights of untouched splendors she had never seen the like of before…

A warm home. A warm hearth.

A warm heart. A warm embrace.

A warm kiss.

A warm meal.

A warm smile.

The spreading warmth of his hands feeling around for unseen realms beyond. With his aether lighting up the darkness of their room, and lighting up the darkness of her soul.

As if blinking in that moment at these feelings rising in her chest, she choked again slightly, and opened her eyes, finding she was still leaning into him, as he held her.

“Ha-…” The name yet eluded her.

“ _Shhh… take your time, my dear. It will come to you_.”

“I thought… I thought you were dead! But then… I thought I was as well. That I was dead…”

She rose her head from him slowly, looking into his eyes. The mask was gone, and she could see the golden outline of his soul through the yellow irises.

“Is everything sad now going to come untrue? What’s happened to the world?”

“ _I ask myself that very question time and again, and I find myself bereft of one befitting the needed role to answer. A Traveler who has seen it in full, and can respond in kind_.”

“I… I suppose I am?” Her recollection was faltering again, as the magic of the moment began to break. He frowned slightly, retracting his hand from her cheek but holding his embrace.

He lifted her chin slightly, so her eyes remained level with his.

“ _Suppose nothing. The stone in your hand will tell you true, of your own nature_.”

He cupped her faltering hands around it again, and the rose.

“ _Remember_.”

“I…”

“ _Remember_!”

There was a tinge of desperation in his voice. A hoarseness to it. Like grave dust seeping out of his mouth.

“I’m trying… I want to but… it’s… nothing is coming into focus… not enough…”

She folded back into his body and wept, her mind now thoroughly a mess, a wash of conflicting feelings and thoughts.

“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”

His expression became flat, and he deepened his embrace, clinging close to her, holding back his own tears. He would not give up on her. Not now, not after all this time. Not when she was so close.

He gently pet her, caressing her hair as she let out her tears onto his coat.

A final idea occurred to him, and one that was now becoming true in this moment. He exhaled, and spoke.

“ _I forgive you_.”

The weeping suddenly stopped.

“ _Listen to my voice. Listen to our heartbeat. Our bond_.”

Silence.

“ _Listen…_ ”

A solitary tear departed her eyes, falling to the forest floor. The wind rustling in the tree above them, and flowing through her hair. His clothing.

“I forgive you.”

“ _I forgive you too_.”

A longer silence, as they sat cradled up together next to the tree, crickets and the rest still chirping and singing their songs in the background of their renewed struggle towards something. Anything like what had come before.

Things were finally beginning to snap back into focus. At long last.

She blinked a bit.

Where am I?

She remained thinking on this for several more moments, running her left hand over her heart and her body and her face, trying to find the recollections. The memory of her appearance. He did not respond to her movements, allowing her the opportunity now to find her own way.

Her hands found his face.

“Your name is Hades.”

The smile returned, wider now. Tears coming forth from his eyes in no time at all, draping down her fingers.

“ _Yes… it is_.”

“And my name… is Persephone.”

“ _Correct_.”

“And I have made a terrible mistake.”

“ _And I forgive you_.”

His voice was so soft, so inviting, so much less then it had been when she had first… when she had found him again. And those words felt like a waterfall of relief, the easing of a terrible burden…

“Thank you… That is… that is all I ever wanted…”

She began to weep again into his coat and embrace him more fully, knowing at last who she was again.

“I’m so sorry, Hades. I’m so sorry… for everything…”

“ _I know, my dear. I know… take all the time you need_.”

***

After a time, she fell asleep, cradled in his arms, giving out under the strain of the late hour and the nigh endless outpouring of her heart and soul. Tears that had waited thousands of years for the chance to fall, and relief at his words. Echoing in her mind as she drifted to sleep, and dreamed of that moment with him, long ago.

His endless warmth. His endless void. A contrast so indicative of his soul, the soul she knew so well.

In the morning, she found she had been propped up against the tree, and that he had disappeared. The rose remained in her hand, as did the stone with its familiar white circles.

She placed the stone in a pocket of her robe, and placed the rose into her hair, finding it possessed no thorns and was a snug fit next to her ears. As if it clinged to her as well, like the stone seemed to do with a magnetic pull.

Thancred and Urianger this time approached her from Fanow, finding her already walking back in their direction. Her hat was gone, stuffed into her pack with a little effort; she told them she had spent the night sleeping under the stars and the trees peacefully, and had desired to appreciate the sky as it was now without her normal hat. They smiled in knowing, in agreement, nodding their heads, glad most of all that she was safe.

Though it was not readily apparent, their friend Sarah, fabled Warrior of Light, had already turned her eyes towards some new horizon line beyond them. And in the rush of emotion and shifting recollections, that sea of possibilities that now stretched out before her, she had found her own smiling face staring back at her. In the form of a man whom she had loved dearly, more than any other star. The star she had gazed into that night most of all.

And in his face, had found herself again.

The seed had been planted, and the name subtly shifted. The game board was shuffling. He watched the three of them walk off from atop yet another tree, out of sight. She could feel him watching, and this too ensured the smile on her face remained even as she departed his presence. For he was never far. And neither now was his smile in turn, beaming at her.

It was time to change the plan, and account for this unforeseen variable.

“ _We will speak again soon, my dear_.”

He summoned a void portal, and departed.


	2. Seeing Reason

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This work, given that it is set roughly in the middle of Shadowbringers MSQ, will often directly reference scenes from the MSQ word for word. The difference will mainly be in the inner monologue of Sarah in the moment, the framing of the scenes, and the change in perspective and focus as she tries to make sense of her new awareness of Emet-Selch. Chapters like these are very much the start of the slow burn ahead, and the process by which any number of things could come about.
> 
> Sex scene ahead, as well. Enjoy. :3
> 
> As a final brief note; this work will start in this chapter to reference fanon from my main series concerning events from Sarah's main timeline, so to speak. Stuff concerning her discoveries with Emet-Selch after the facts of his death and return among other things. Feel free to read them if you'd like more context.
> 
> Sarah has departed Rak'tika and returned to the Crystarium with the Scions to determine the next steps in their pursuit of the remaining two Lightwardens. Their planning being interrupted by a massive sin eater attack in Lakeland, she rushes to the defense of the city and the people in the outlying settlements, with many eyes upon her and her rapidly changing sense of perspective...

It was raining. Heavily.

Mud caked her boots, tarnishing the brass buckles and framing metal plates. Jogging gingerly through the rain soaked dirt roads, pushing towards the battle at the head of a force of the Crystarium’s guards. Halberds held high, swords drawn, bows at the ready.

A sin eater horde, attacking Lakeland and the outlying settlements beyond the city. Killing and turning any and all they encountered. Even the animals were no longer safe, and scattered to the four winds as the din of battle grew louder with each passing moment to match the pounding rain. Relentless.

The weight lifted in lover’s embrace not long ago was now back with a vengeance, and felt heavier than before. More apparent to her weary heart. More galling, for the nature of this struggle. Each dead eater and soul saved no longer felt assured or worthwhile. Each victory felt hollow; useless and transient.

And the screaming. Each one saved… and then two more were taken. Turned, like as not, to add to the horde that needed to be cut down. Or corpses, littering the forest floor. And the blood…

Her eyes scanned the carnage before her, trying to find something to make sense of. She saw Minfilia and Thancred dueling the beasts together, trying to save Lyna who had been wounded in the distance. He was coughing up blood, straining his gunblade against a particularly large, angelic eater. They were presently cut off from Sarah’s group’s advance.

Her ears drew her attention from this scene to more screams up on a nearby hill, and the pitiful begging of Ardbert, her ghostly companion on this long road. His pale form radiated impotency and desperation, emotions she was coming to feel and exude now herself. Urging the wounded in his midst to flee from the renewed eater assault, only to have his words fall on deaf ears. Only she could hear him or see him.

And then the screaming grew louder. The begging, now of the soon to be dead, as the sin eaters drew close for the kill. She closed her eyes as the screams were cut short.

“Why did you spare me? Why? What have I done to deserve this mercy!?”

The rain continued to pour, and she stopped dead in the road, no longer able to focus on walking forward, lost in thinking on his words though not entirely understanding their context.

What have I done to deserve this? What have I done to find myself here?

She’d rushed out here with the Twins to save as many as she could. And yet, it already felt hopeless. They expected her to carry the day, and she likely easily could. But what would truly be the worth of another senseless battle? Regardless of the foe, she felt unable to find any meaning in this slaughter.

In this endless parade of sins.

“Forward! Forward! If you can still hold a sword, follow me! Wounded, to the rear!”

One of the Crystarium’s officers, forming the muster up behind her for a charge. Steeling their resolve. His words snapped her out of her mind.

“Weapons at the ready! Let’s make this count!”

A pat on her back from the man, as he offered her a reassuring nod and pressed on, with men and women now rushing off behind him. A bunch of fools, marching to their deaths. As had ever been their way, over and over…

She sighed, following behind them, sensing the eyes of Ardbert and Emet-Selch both on her in this moment. One in confusion, the other returned to his observation. She still didn’t entirely know what to make of Ardbert, but did not want him to see her falter overlong when so much still weighed on her actions.

And… Hades?

She had a greater number of thoughts and questions regarding him, for their recent exchange. Too much to address right now. Too much even to think on. Focus…

To relieve herself from the sensation of being watched, of feeling judged, she focused her energy into her weapon. Loyal Paikea, her staff of black magicks, hard won in Eureka some seasons past.

Be now my answer to this moment and their eyes.

She channeled fire and lighting into it, a furious blaze crackling with power that lit the air and defied the pouring rain. A sun, blazing bright among the now stunned combatants as they witnessed her scream far louder than the wounded and dying and the sin eaters screeches, running and charging into the mass of malformed creatures. Charging through her memories and bringing light to her own pain by giving it release.

She wielded the staff like a hammer, unlike it’s normal use, and destroyed sin eaters by the dozen, tossing them about like so much refuse, slicing and smashing them in equal measure, watching the particles of their light pass her by. Reminders of the embers of the city aflame, dancing over her face, the rain becoming blood and fire in turn to her now widening eyes. Crackling lightning the sound of another spire buckling inward and collapsing.

She railed against this too. All of this was her failure. Her guilt. Her shame.

How many more must I kill to be rid of this?!

How much more blood must I spill to be whole?!?

A bell passed, and by her actions many were saved that day, and many eaters slain, old and new. By the end of it however, she was still lost in the moment, flailing about and totally incapable of stopping. Unaware now of her surroundings and where or when she even was. She had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, off the field to the Pendants and to her room to rest by Thancred and the others. Lyna had stared in silent shock as the Warrior of Darkness cried out about the fires that seemed to her to envelop the whole world, but which no one else could see.

Ardbert blinked a few times before slowly moving along with the procession behind her of bewildered guards, each talking in hushed tones about her state of mind. He could feel some distant sensation of the things she was feeling and seeing, and it set his teeth on edge. What in the hells had come over her?

He’d have to broach it all with her soon himself, and try to figure out what the hells was going on.

Emet-Selch, watching them bring her back and attempt to calm her, pondered as well the implications of this reaction, and her display of fury. Had I been too quick in my offering of memories to her? Are they breaking her? Overwhelming her? Can she handle the burden of the truth?

It did not take him long to come to a conclusion.

Of course she can. She is Azem. She is my Persephone. If she could not handle these memories, we would not have spoken. I would not have offered what I did. She will find the strength again. I believe in her, as she once had faith in me.

She need only remember more, and find correction when she stumbles. I will embrace patience for her sake. He folded his arms, nodded, and departed once again for another vantage point via a void portal.

She will be mine again.

***

She slept a long time, all through Vauthry’s pronouncement of the next day and the recovery efforts following the battle, and was only present for the later meeting in the Ocular the following day. It was late in the morning, as she rubbed weariness and confusion from her eyes in equal measure even as she walked up the gilded crystal steps of the Tower’s interior to that space. Up to where the Exarch waited for her and her companions.

She didn’t exactly remember everything that had occurred after she charged into the main sin eater host. Only a blur of activity and shifts between time and place, and the feeling of the staff in her hand, feeling like a hot iron burned into her flesh, though no wound remained to suggest it had been real.

She held her head with one hand, as if slipping in and out of Echoes, pulsing into her mind distorted scenes of fire and death, but also of other things. Things from the pasts of those around her in this moment as she entered the Ocular proper.

Thancred and Minfilia, talking in the solar in the Waking Sands, prior to her recruitment.

Urianger and Moenbryda, reading together late at night in the Studium’s library in the motherland.

Alisaie and Alphinaud, talking about some matter together in the Quicksand over dinner.

Y’shtola, laughing and talking with Y’mhitra, her sister, in the Carline Canopy inn room where she had convalesced following her first return from the Lifestream.

Curiously, the only one who did not come to mind was the Exarch, as if his own history was beyond her in this moment. She had plenty of theories concerning him too, but in this moment she found herself more concerned with merely remaining balanced upright, not collapsing to the floor with sudden vertigo. She blinked, before finding she was leaning into the door of the Ocular, with Thancred offering her help to right herself.

Everyone was staring at her, unsure of what to think or say. She lowered her head under her wide brimmed hat and hid her face from them.

Following brief greetings and nods of acknowledgement that all the Scions were present, Urianger gave voice to the anxiety that now hung over everyone in the Ocular as to her conduct the evening prior.

“My lady Sarah, I pray this day finds you better than the one before last. We were surprised with thy ferocious prowess on the field of battle, and wouldst know now how thy mind fairs.”

“Poorly, Urianger… I have not felt… myself, since the Ravel. Not entirely.”

“Thou seemed more at peace with thyself whenst Thancred and I did find thee emerging from the canopy not far from the Ravel following night’s return. Has aught changed to bring about these disturbances?”

“I don’t know. I have a lot on my mind right now, ‘tis all. I would just request… some time and patience. I apologize for any worry I have elicited with my actions of late.”

A sigh, and a deep breath.

“The battle… just brought up some bad memories for me.”

“The life of a hero is not an easy one in any sense, is it?” The Exarch, looking at her from beneath his cowl, expression unreadable as usual.

“No. No it isn’t. I’ve been in dozens of battles before but… something about that one felt… it hit harder than usual… was harder to handle, you know?”

“I do. Given all the years we have fought them, I should be used to the losses and the turning. But I am not. It never becomes an easier sight to endure. Or to live with afterwards.”

She nodded slowly. She didn’t quite know who he really was yet, but she was at least grateful for his understanding. His compassion in this moment.

“There was a great deal more, however, that was unusual about this particular attack by the sin eaters. I have-”

The door opened and closed, interrupting him.

Emet-Selch, sauntering in nonchalantly as if expected. She could feel his presence draw close to her like a building heat. It pushed out all other thoughts and drew her attention to him as she listened.

“ _Sorry I’m late. Though I would not have been had anyone thought to notify me in advance_.”

“I apologize for that too, in fact. I should have let you know we would be meeting… now.” She stopped towards the end of her response, as the eyes in the room turned to her from his arrival, confused at her words.

“ _I appreciate the sentiment, hero. Thank you_.” A brief smile. Just like at the Ravel. Soothing. She stole a smile back at him in return before turning back to the Exarch, who only seemed mildly perturbed as he continued.

“… as I was saying, I have reason to believe that it was only with your collective aid that we weathered this assault. Without it, the Crystarium and all who dwell here would now be gone.”

“For each we saved, another perished.” Alphinaud commenting on the dire nature of that battle, still stirring in her mind. Though she had saved the city, it still felt as though she hadn’t saved nearly enough.

“If there is anything else we can do to help, anything at all, you need only ask. This is our home too, and we want nothing more than to keep it safe.”

The Exarch nodded, smiling at him.

“Thank you. We are all blessed to have you with us.”

He turned to face each person in the room, even Emet-Selch, as he spoke further on the attack.

“As for the attack itself, Vauthry may call it divine retribution, but sin eaters are creatures of instinct. A coordinated assault is unprecedented. Moreover, in the absence of a Lightwarden, there should have been no compulsion for lesser sin eaters to congregate here en masse. All of which points to a single, unavoidable conclusion…”

“… That these minions of Light answer to a higher power.” Urianger responded.

“He who did claim kinship with them, who did boast of control, not in idleness, ‘twould seem, but in earnest. Lord Vauthry.”

“Indeed. What I mistook for bluster was in fact the truth. The sin eaters are his to command. But if he imagines this show of force will convince us to bend the knee, he is sorely mistaken.”

Alisaie spoke next.

“I take it your meeting in Eulmore did _not_ end well?”

“You could say that, yes. But I am wiser for the experience, nevertheless. It appears he has mastered a technique which allows him to enslave the minds of others. A fact I discovered when he attempted to use it on me.”

How very primal like of him.

Alphinaud turned to Sarah and the others.

“That would go some way towards explaining the peculiar reverence afforded him by his subjects. There may feasibly be a handful of true believers among them, I suppose, but it would not surprise me if the vast majority were in his thrall.”

Recalling her brief meeting with the man, such as he was, Sarah could only agree with this sentiment. Vauthry did not seem the type to inspire loyalty and trust.

“Had I not anticipated his treachery, I might well have joined them. But seeing his invitation for what it was, I sent a glamour in my stead. I rather doubt such tricks will avail me a second time, however.”

Something he has in common with Hades. I really must practice that form of magic more.

Alisaie turned to her brother.

“Did you have any luck tracking down the final Lightwarden of Kholusia?”

“Sadly, I have nothing to report on that front.”

As if it wasn’t painfully obvious who it was by now, based upon the very conversation that had just come to pass. Was it always on her to discover the truth of things for them?

“What of Amh Araeng?”

“After a fruitless few days scouring ruins, I resorted to asking the locals. While no one I spoke to had seen any sign of the Warden, I did uncover a possible lead; an abandoned mine in western Amh Araeng. From what the Mord told me, it would be a perfect place to stay out of sight.”

She shook her head.

“Of course, I could never hope to explore such a labyrinth quickly or safely on my own, so I returned here.”

Y’shtola tapped her hand to her head in thought.

“Even should we all join in the endeavour, an exhaustive search could take weeks, and with no guarantee of finding anything.”

Leave it to her to actually have something intelligent to say.

After a pause, Minfilia was the next to speak, to everyone’s surprise.

“The Wardens harbour vast reservoirs of primordial Light, do they not? Far beyond anything found in lesser sin eaters. And isn’t it true that the Oracle could see the Light of a sin eater from malms away? Surely a Warden would seem like a blazing beacon by comparison?”

Another intelligent response. How illuminating from the young charge. I’m impressed.

Minfilia paused, beginning to realize how out of place she felt with everyone turned to listen to her words.

“To the real Oracle of Light, I mean. The real Minfilia…”

A few open mouths from the Scions, who were as surprised as Sarah that the young Minfilia had such insights to offer in this moment that would be worthy of coming from Urianger, had he a chance to refer to his books in the Shelves back in Il Mheg.

She turned to Thancred now.

“If we traveled to Amh Araeng, to the south where she halted the Flood, I could summon her back.”

A mean feat, given how long she’s supposedly been dead and reborn, many times. Rising and setting with the twisting fates of all those who called this shard home.

“What do you think?”

I think it’s a great idea. I doubt he’ll like it though.

Another pause.

“… Don’t.”

Typical.

“Don’t what? Do what I can? What we both know is right?”

“Do not presume to know my mind. You have no idea what you’re proposing.”

“But I do! I know why you never said anything. Because you thought you could keep me safe by keeping me in the dark. And… maybe I thought so too. But I knew, Thancred. I always knew!”

I’m becoming more impressed with her by the minute.

Thancred folded his arms. The silence in the Ocular began to become deafening in a hurry, as the two of them stared each other down. She would not back off from her proposal, and her conviction. He was not likely to back down from his in turn.

And then, it was his turn to speak.

“ _Oh, I see… I thought you were a rather underwhelming reincarnation, but it all makes sense now_.”

Hm?

“ _The Oracle lies dormant within you, doesn’t she? But to draw on her true power, you must become one, both body and soul_.”

Ah. I see.

“ _To wit, one being must consume the other. Who shall be the lucky winner_?”

Well, we already have the answer to that particular question, don’t we?

Do we?

“This doesn’t concern you, Ascian.” Thancred turned his ire towards Emet-Selch.

“ _But it plainly concerns you. Which is why your heart is ready to burst out of your chest. Despite the raging tempest in your bosom, however, you have never once opened up to your young charge. Now why would that be_?”

Something Hades seems much more willing to do, once given due motivation.

 _And you are always my motivation, my dear_.

What? How are…

 _I will explain later. For now, focus_.

Thancred was clenching his fists now, digging daggers into the Ascian as he began to smirk.

“ _Love…_?”

Oh… the way he spoke that word… I almost need to balance myself again here and now. But not in front of them…

 _You’ve always been one to melt at the sound of my voice, my dear. I am glad to see that much has not changed_.

Gods… be silent you.

“ _Well, I for one think it’s a marvelous idea. Certainly more promising than any of your other suggestions_.”

On that, we can most certainly agree. Beats wandering around dusty old mines for a turn of the moon or two in fruitless time wasting.

“ _So, it’s off to Amh Araeng we go_!” The cheery tone of his voice in this moment, while tuned specifically to ruffle Thancred’s feathers the most, seemed only to continue to deepen her renewing desire to speak with him with her voice, rather than… apparently with her mind.

A feeling she was attempting now to convey with another brief smile in his direction, which he also subtly returned once again.

After another pause, which found Minfilia looking down away from Thancred in disappointment, Thancred spoke once more, turning to the others.

“I’ll meet you at the gates.”

He stole a final cutting gaze at the Ascian before storming past him and quickly opening and closing the doors of the Ocular. The smirk returned again to Emet-Selch’s lips, his small goal achieved.

After a few more moments of talking of formalities as to the journey, the others departed. Soon, it was just the Exarch, Emet-Selch, and Sarah remaining. Minfilia was the last to leave, after receiving brief words of consolation and encouragement from Sarah.

“I know he can be grating at times, but I know also that he ever has your best interest at heart. Try to be patient with him. We’ll show him together this is the best course forward, and I’ll have your back next time if he remains intransigent, alright?”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you Sarah. I appreciate it.” A smile from the young Oracle, as she turned now to leave.

Sarah smiled after her, before turning to the Exarch.

“Need anything else before I depart, Exarch?”

“Nothing urgent comes to mind my friend. I will be certain to send a runner if anything comes up, or if need be, come myself. It has been some time since I visited the desert; I shouldn’t mind any excuse to see how the Mord and the miners are getting on, perhaps extend renewed offers of Crystarium assistance to the people of Twine.”

A nod, and mutual smiles from them both.

She turned to Emet-Selch.

“And how about you? Need anything from me before I depart?”

“ _You could shine my boots, if you are insistent on being so servile_.”

Perhaps we can revisit that at a later time, when I can find a precious free moment alone.

_And that may perhaps come sooner than you think, hero._

This is definitely going to take some getting used to.

A scowl, framed to keep up the charade that was already beginning to build between them out of necessity.

“I’d sooner shine the boots of a Monetarist. Can’t you for once try to be more empathetic of others? That outburst with Thancred was a little uncalled for.”

“ _But I get the sense you agree with me, hero_.”

“Perhaps, but getting the point across didn’t require quite so much needling of the man, though I wonder sometimes if you are even capable of doing otherwise.”

 _Oh, you wound me, my dear. Truly_.

“ _Well, by all means, continue on your quest and perhaps you will see what I am capable of in full_.”

With this, he turned and sauntered out of the Ocular, waving as he went in his usual manner.

The wave elicited the briefest of familiar feelings. And the scent of lavender in her nose, though without apparent source.

“I take it you’ve grown troubled by his presence of late?”

She turned back towards the Exarch, shaking her head.

“Not entirely. He’s proven to be quite useful and honest when he deigns to be. I find pause only in his irritating aspect at all times, and the way he gets under peoples skin constantly. It sometimes undermines my efforts, even as he otherwise provides me a great deal to think upon.”

“How very interesting. I suppose even one’s enemies can provide one with unique insights into oneself and one’s own circumstances.”

“Might I hazard a guess that you are not opposed to his presence?”

“I have not decided, truth be told. He is an Ascian, after all, and I know full well from the others tales just how much he and his kind have caused countless atrocities to come to pass, not least of which being our current predicament. But he has also not stood in our way, nor posed an outward threat to us or the people of the city.”

He nodded his head at Sarah, with yet another reassuring smile.

“I would only say at present that you should tread lightly with him. He is not our friend. But if he wishes to observe, I see no harm in allowing him to do so for now. I very much doubt we could stop him from whatever he might wish to do, if it came to that. But I also trust you and your ability to stop him. And I trust your judgement.”

“I appreciate that much, then. I will keep your words in mind. Thank you.”

A final nod, and she departed from the Ocular, leaving the Exarch to his thoughts, and a hand to his chin.

***

Some bells later, with evening approaching the night again, she found herself in her Pendants room once more. Ardbert was waiting for her as she closed the door.

“So, everything alright with you?”

“Nice to see you again too, Ardbert.”

He paused as she stared at him a moment, exhaustion on her face. She sighed, removing her hat and placing it on the couch near the door.

“I saw what happened the other day, out in Lakeland. With the eater horde and your reaction. To what I said, to… if what I was trying to do to save people… if that prompted that outburst, I apologize.”

She collapsed with a small thud into her bed, not bothering to remove her robe. It had been a long day.

She removed the rose from her ear tuck, and looked up at it as she responded.

“It did not, but I was certainly unsettled by it as I was everything in that moment. The whole battle got to me more than I expected. Watching the guards fall by the dozen, watching the eaters grow in number and attack my friends, watching you unable to do a thing about it… that alone mirrored my own helplessness.”

She laid the rose out across her chest and closed her eyes.

“It’s been a long time since I felt that much fear and disquiet in battle.”

“Where’d the flower come from? Doesn’t look native to our world. Least not that I can remember.”

She paused, considering her words carefully.

“A gift… from an old friend. From the Source. It’s called an Azeyma rose, one of my favourites.”

“Sounds like something one would receive from a lover if you ask me, but I won’t pry. It does somehow feel… familiar to me, even so.”

“Perhaps you saw some in Thanalan, when you were on the Source. They grow wild in many places in the desert.”

“Perhaps.”

He walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge of it by her feet, looking out towards the open window.

“Your friends put on a brave face for you today up in the Tower, but I can tell, from how I saw them react to you after the battle. They worry for you a great deal.”

“And they should, for the Light and all the rest. Should my mind be strained, it should not be so hard for them to understand why.”

“True enough…” He was present in Slitherbough when she had eavesdropped on the conversation between Y’shtola and Urianger regarding the state of her soul.

“And what of the Ascian? He isn’t causing you too much trouble?”

“No. If anything, he’s been more… helpful of late, at helping me figure some things out. Not that it helped much the other day.”

“How so?”

“Put some things into perspective, is all… Things that have been on my mind for a long time. I was honestly surprised to see just how… thoughtful and attentive he could be, when he has a mind to be.”

“Doesn’t sound like any Ascian I ever interacted with. Certainly not Elidibus.”

“Elidibus was ever a worrier. He doesn’t…” She trailed a bit, catching herself.

“Did you meet him? On the Source?”

“In the past, yes. When he came to the Waking Sands, quite a long time ago now. To taunt us, and the Minfilia you came back here with. He met me later in a swamp some distance away and we talked. I got the sense he was worried about me, even past the calculating manner he addressed me in.”

“That sounds like him from my experience, aye.” A nod.

Silence for a moment.

“I hope you can get some more rest tonight. I imagine Amh Araeng will prove to be a trying journey, as all my old trips to the desert ever were.”

“I’ll make sure to pack some sunscreen.” She grinned up at him.

“That one of your Eorzean alchemical marvels I’ve heard so much about?”

“Something like that, yes. I’d share some with you, but I suspect you wouldn’t need it.”

“I’ll just make sure to pack an umbrella, myself.” He grinned back at her.

“I’ll give you some privacy now. Take care Sarah.”

“Until next time, Ardbert.”

He got up off the bed and then walked over to the door before seeming to fade out of sight.

After a few moments, to give herself surety that he had departed, she spoke.

“And before you ask, yes, he’s been with me since I got to the First. I don’t entirely know why I can see him and hear him and communicate, or why I am the only one who can do so.”

The door opened and closed. Emet-Selch now sat down at her bedside, at the edge by her feet.

“ _Had you not shared such information with me now, I would not have been aware of him. Though my sight for such things is quite keen, the ages I have spent observing dim outlines of the sundered shards have dulled my senses. They are nothing like what I once knew_.”

“What I apparently once knew.”

“ _Still doubtful, I see_.”

“I cannot place where I begin and she ends, Hades.”

“ _And so… who might I be speaking to right now_?”

A pause.

“Both of us? Neither? I am uncertain… it is all a blur. As if there never was anyone else, only a change of name and face. That I am Persephone in truth, and Sarah is just the name I wear in this age for lack of it.”

“ _That would go some length of the way in explaining the relative ease of reaching you, that night before. Though there is yet a great many things that remain hidden from you_.”

“Even with this?” She removed the Azem crystal from her pocket, holding it out to him.

“ _Even with that_.”

She turned her eyes down, before slowly closing them again.

“So what does that mean… for us? I must seem like a shadow of what I was. Almost no better than from when I was absent…”

A longer pause, as he looked out the window in the manner Ardbert had not long before, before turning back to her.

“ _I cannot lie, certainly not to you most of all. I am deeply saddened, more than anything, to see you in this state. It was part of what prompted my desire to come to your side that night and help you_.”

“So it was out of pity, then?”

“ _No. A genuine desire to help you. To save you_.”

He rose from the bed, walked to face her by the bedside, and motioned to kneel before her. His face was the picture of remorse.

“ _When I departed from you the day before that night, in the forest, when you asked me your questions, it was because you had given rise to sudden awareness. Anger, and disappointment. That you were already approaching yourself again even without my guidance but were still so distant from realizing who you truly are. What you were. And… perhaps more importantly in some ways, what you did and failed to do_.”

“I was in absence, so I must have done something terrible indeed. As I said. A mistake.”

“ _You abandoned us out of disagreement over Zodiark’s summoning. You departed from me to save your loved ones outside the city. You gave yourself over to the needs of a moment rather than the needs of the Star as you had sworn to do before the Convocation_.”

He cupped a hand onto her cheek, tears in his eyes.

“ _You gave yourself over to the needs of others over the needs of your peers. And over my own needs and wants. You left me behind. I did not see you again for thousands of years_.”

Her eyes and mouth widened. She gazed around the room a moment trying to even imagine how long that must have really felt, how long it must have really been to live so long, holding her stone close and remembering her.

“That… that sounds like something you would do. But not like something I would do. Was… was Zodiark truly so terrible that I felt the need to abandon all of the things I held dear? For some shortsighted goal? Would not my loved ones lives be saved by Him?”

“ _I cannot say I understand even now all your reasons. I was more upset at the time. You left me holding so much, and defending you in the face of increasingly bitter words… the anger of our friends and peers in the city who resented your actions as well, your betrayal of our trust_.”

She closed her eyes again, breathing more heavily but keeping the tears back so she could focus on learning about the past.

“ _Zodiark is an imperfect solution in many ways. But in the end, His will was what saved us from the Final Days. The cataclysm that ended our world and would have spelled a final ending to all life had we not intervened. It was only due to the shortsightedness of those who summoned Hydaelyn and due to your own, independent actions, that our world was undone err it could recover fully_.”

She mulled over every word as he spoke them, trying to understand her reasoning for her actions. What could she possibly have hoped to gain, to accomplish, from leaving him behind? From leaving behind the Convocation and her dearest friends who sat with her upon that august body?

“ _Were it not for your secretary, Ariadne, we would not have been able to conclude the summoning in time and bring Zodiark to bear against the Sound. You may recall the bond that had formed between you and her; it allowed for her to fulfill your role to a degree, and it was enough to allow for her to provide us the final link in our chain, when the moment came to bring Him forth_.”

“Gods… she can’t have agreed to that easily.”

“ _A bit more easily than you might think; she and I had something of a heart to heart before the end, and she came to agree with the urgency of the moment, even with your reasoning fresh in mind_.”

“Where is she?”

“ _As sundered as all the rest. With time I imagine your bond may return, and allow you to find her again, if you wish. Though in that sense you may with her shards come to understand how I now feel with you. To see the limitations of memory among the sundered souls, and how she will not recognize you_.”

The tears were slowly becoming harder to keep contained.

“ _There is yet more, my dear…_ ”

“Of course there is…”

“ _Lahabrea, Elidibus and I… we owe you our lives. Were it not for your own intervention at the very end, in the moment She smote Him and sundered creation, we would have been undone as all else was. It was for this reason that I was even able to preserve all that was lost, and can now seek to right the balance, with you and the world at large. As all we Ascians seek and always have sought_.”

Her hands were now shaking again.

“H-how… How did… How could I have…?”

“ _You sacrificed yourself to shield us, in those final moments. I know not how or from whence you came, but it was your soul I felt that fateful day enveloping us… enveloping me as you had so many times before…_ ”

His tears finally came loose, and he faced the floor, weeping by her bedside, unable to speak further. Within moments of thinking through this barrage of memories and actions of her past, and listening to his tears fall, she finally turned over on her side, placing the rose to one side as she wept in turn beside him.

“Hades… why… why did I do this…”

“ _I do not know, my dear. I truly do not know…_ ”

Several moments passed, as they gradually came closer, to try and find consolation in their renewed embrace. Their reunion. Their collective tears seemed to be as endless as the aether that now stretched from him to envelop her, and caress the edges of her shattered soul.

“And now… now I find myself opposed to you… what a cruel jest of fate is this…”

“ _It need not be so any longer…_ ”

“I may as well be tempered to Her will, if what you say is true… and if I do remember why I did this to begin with… what then? Why did I do this?!”

She slammed her fists into the bedsheets, alongside a fresh burst of tears staining them. He took her hands now, raising his head to her, tears on his cheeks.

“ _I cannot tell you why it is so… I have spent so many years trying to understand it all, in truth. Trying to figure out where things went wrong…_ ”

He began to wipe away her tears with one hand while holding her own with the other.

“ _Perhaps, when the memory returns… you’ll have the context of the present to see that you were wrong_.”

“Perhaps… I can only hope so. None of this is right… none of it…”

“ _Shh… dry your eyes now, my dear. I hate to see your beautiful features tarnished so…_ ”

She smiled weakly at him, choking a bit on her tears and helping him to wipe the last of them away, before pressing her head down into the bedsheets.

He caressed her hair, and sat there at her side for some time, feeling her emotions seep into his aether and mingle with his own long abiding feelings. His regrets. And his relief at finally having found her, here and now. At finally having this chance to talk, and to try and reconcile.

Despite everything that had happened, he could not long remain mad at her. He imagined that arguments might yet occur, as they had when she had departed from him, all those years ago. But he knew as well that, just like with everything else, he would do what was necessary to bring her back to his side. To overcome all challenges and differences and remind her of what was truly important to her.

And, equally as importantly, bring her into the fold. Bring her before her peers again, so that judgement could be rendered, and her seat restored. He was reluctant to offer that particular detail as yet, but knew it too would need to be a subject discussed at length with her. To prepare her for her return.

There could be no other way now. She was already learning too much to be left to her own devices, after all. If she did not join him…

No. That is not something to consider. That will not happen. Not this time.

I will not suffer it to be so.

“Hades?”

Her words drew his head and eyes back up from where they had fallen in thought and exhaustion to face the floor. He rose to see her smiling face, looking back at him.

“I’m… I’m sorry, again, for all of this. But I must say as well… it is so good to see you again.”

She was the same. As ever she was. Sweet as a summer breeze.

“ _It is good to see you again as well, my dearest Traveler_.”

She laid back in the bed, stretching a bit and rubbing her eyes.

“So… what happens now?”

He rose to stand next to the bed.

“ _We… remember. Together. However long it takes_.”

“To remember all that has been lost… I can’t help but feel that will take a very long time…”

“ _A very long time, yes. But you need not worry for want of time to remember. We will restore you in due time. When…_ ”

She blinked up at him, a bit confused.

“When what, Hades? Restore me?”

Time for a distraction. That is a talk for another time.

“ _When the time is right, we will make that journey through memory together. But for the moment? I have a more immediate means of bringing memories of a much fonder nature to you…_ ”

He snapped his fingers. The lights dimmed. The door locked. The shutters of the window closed with a soft click.

Another snap. His clothes were gone, and his eyes seemed to glow slightly, a soft yellow, in the darkness. She looked over the silhouette of his naked form, drawing back a bit in the sheets with shock at this sudden shift.

“Hades! Gods… you know how to surprise a woman don’t you?”

He smirked, sitting at the bedside now again, but closer to her.

“ _Just as I did the first time we… had a chance to reminisce together. I recall you were much more eager the last time to engage my dear_.”

“I… can imagine. You have quite a body…”

“ _This body was sculpted to lead men into battle. I suppose it can also lead you on the path to a memorable evening_.”

Was she really considering doing this?

What kind of a question is that? Of course I am!

He’s an Ascian! Your soul is the only reason he’s even bothering not to kill you!

That assumes I am not as I surmised in the forest; his peer. I was already bound for his side before I even awoke in this life. This is natural.

He wants to do the right thing. This is right.

This is right.

She smiled up at him.

“I remember we had many bodies back then. Many forms we could take.”

He beamed down at her wider now, as he leaned in closer, eyelids lowering slightly.

“ _That too will come with time and patience. But I am glad you remember that too… there is so much for you to remember that will lighten your heart’s woes. I promise… I will not let you fall again if I can help it…_ ”

“To think… you held this all alone for so long without me… I struggle to even imagine…”

“ _Do not tax yourself overmuch with such things… all that matters is we are together again. And I remember you as I remember myself, more than any other soul…_ ”

“Show me then… what you remember.”

He leaned in but an ilm from her face, but then hesitated.

She looked over his face, and could sense he was second guessing himself now. It was her turn to reassure. She had just the thing.

She leaned up close to his ear, close to the earring.

“I love you, my Hades. My Angel.”

A solitary tear from his eye.

She drew his face to hers in her hands and kissed him, lingering in embrace and drawing him down to the bed.

“ _I love you too… Persephone… I have missed you…_ ”

“I have missed you too…”

He began to undo her clothing, practically tearing it off of her.

***

Long into the evening and the night, they spent together. His hands buried into her clit and waiting folds, in the moments when his face was not greedily taking his fill of her juices. She moaned an endless procession of whimpers and begging, pleading desires. These too had waited so long for release, and now in his eyes, in his hands, and all the rest of him, they found their way.

A taste of home. His was a taste to remember indeed.

She was between his legs now, putting her all into drawing from him as many whimpers and moans as she had given to him. Drawing forth after a long time of sucking and stroking his own juices, like fine wines drawn in lines over her blue skin and flushed cheeks. She drank deep of him again and again, attempting not only to please him but to remember him by taste as much as by any other means.

After a while, their play was over, and the real fun began. She straddled the length of his cock and drove it in deep, as far as it could go, in a swift motion, having already long since been loosened and lubricated by his touch and tender ministrations. In this exchange, she took her fill now, a hand on his throat, eyes locked as she began to slowly bounce atop him, and draw him upward to sit.

A deep embrace. A deep kiss. Tongues intermingled. Moaning drowned out by the sound of their pace increasing slowly, painfully slowly, but surely as their desires and the heat in their chests increased. She pressed into him and sighed happily as he allowed her a chance to break before continuing. She savoured him. All of him.

She never wanted this moment to end. She’d felt the absence for almost as long as it felt like he had. And now… at long last…

I’ve waited so long to feel something.

The first orgasm. A wave of emotions, recollections, the scent of distant shores. Sand and sea spray as she rode the high of every inch of him.

The second orgasm not long after, as he stroked her clitoris while she continued to ride him. She could not do a thing but give in, rapidly quaking in her legs as her fluids came forth across their inner thighs. He came in tandem, releasing deep inside of her. Must remember to thank Feo Ul for assistance in securing her medicines for this occasion… So much to remember…

“Gods… Hades…”

“ _I love you…_ ”

“I love you too… don’t ever stop…”

She drew him down on top of her, and urged him to take his fill. This he did, but not just in the flesh. He reached out his aether to push the boundaries of her soul now. Given the differences between his Unsundered soul and her own shattered one, it was as a whale taking on the continence of a minnow, but he was careful and patient with her as he slowed his pace anew to allow her time to acclimate.

“I… I…”

She could not focus. Could not see anything but his eyes. Feel him in every pore of her body. Deep inside her heart. Buried within her mind, that keening ache for days long gone.

“ _Do not think. Allow it all to flow…_ ”

He renewed the kiss, to help blank her mind and focus her aether to follow the piercing presence of his own, before beginning to renew his pace.

Shimmering stars. So many stars… was this what he had seen once, looking over the people? As they stood in procession to hear our words? Had I seen this sight?

I had. There it is. The yearly declaration…

The applause…

A third orgasm. She cried out, but he placed his lips over hers anew to drown them out. Wouldn’t want anyone to hear, after all.

She bit down on his lips as she felt the press of his own release returning again. Gods, he could go for quite a while. A keeper, this one.

Bites on his neck now as he nibbled at her ears. She kissed and bit along the hem of his shoulders and neck, unable to think or do anything now but cherish him. Show him how much she loved him, and the way he tasted. The way that he made her feel. The way he had remembered her, to repay him his devotion.

To repay him for helping her remember.

Another bell passed, as they changed places and came to repeat this process. Ebbing and flowing between the slow movements and the climaxes, the shifts of pace and molding forms together. Legs intwined. Breasts held up to the dim light and suckled, much to her enjoyment. His tongue was almost as exploratory as her own.

He was a gentle lover in contrast to the bite of his words, out in the world. How privileged she was, then, to see him in full. To see him in this vulnerable moment. Able to bear out for her the fullness of his endless soul. It seemed to go on forever.

She wanted that too. To be as endless as the stars in the sky. Just as he had been.

Whatever it took.

She was panting and sweating profusely by the time he and she came the final time. He was behind her, slamming rapidly into her anus and kissing the back of her neck, a hand on her tail, eliciting a string of notes from her that pleased him greatly. She bit down on his fingers to prevent her yelps of joy from carrying on the air, as she shuddered again upon his cock and stained the bed again. He did the same in rapid succession, filling her with warmth.

They passed out, exhausted, with his arms sheltering her naked body, massaging her stomach.

***

“ _Good morning, Persephone_.”

The windows were open again. The sun was shining in the sky, and in her bed. Even half awake, she was beaming.

“Good morning, my love.”

A tray of food, her favourite meals from the Source, from this life. Placed now before her in bed as she sat up from the sheets, which had mysteriously been refreshed, no longer soiled from sex. How had he known?

 _Call it a guess, from our exchange last night. I learned a great deal about your preferences from this life, such as they are. All the better to attend to you as you deserve, no_?

Where have you been all my life?

He answered with his voice now.

“ _Too far away from you. But no longer. Whatever it takes, I will find the way forward for us both_.”

He placed a hand on her stomach.

“ _I have… provided as well, a means for you to endure the Light that now plagues you. A piece of my essence to hold it back for a while, and give you some release from the hot flashes and the pain. A reprieve until a fuller solution can be found…_ ”

Her eyes were watering again. He reached in and hugged her again, still naked as she was.

“ _The least I could do, for my Traveler. You still have a mission, after all_.”

“Not the one you want for me.”

“ _Not anymore, in any case_.”

She nodded. The goal that had been placed before him by his duty. No hard feelings, right?

This was right.

“I understand. I won’t let you down, whatever comes.”

“ _Whatever comes_.”

She lingered in his embrace. They would find some peace in this moment, and figure things out as they went. She had some idea where things were already headed. But for this? She would risk everything.

For him.

**Author's Note:**

> As is the case with my formal series shipping Emet-Selch with my Warrior of Light, I italicize Emet's speech here out of respect and admiration for him and to add definition to his words when he speaks in a scene. Just for clarification.
> 
> Additionally, this work will exist concurrent with my main series, which I consider to be fanon for my Warrior of Light. I will update it with more parts as I desire to do so until I feel it is complete or wish to conclude it, possibly with multiple endings. It's something of a blank slate, to explore her relationship with him with the assumption of things being different in how she comes to know him, and how he comes to know her. Where it ends up may not be where they want it to be.


End file.
